There’s just no one we’d rather see as Iron Man than Robert Downey Jr himself, however, there was once a time when Marvel had considered hiring Downey a risk. Kevin Feige and director Jon Favreau revealed what a struggle it was to get Marvel cast Robert for the role of Iron Man. Back then, it was reported that Terrence Howard, who played the role of War Machine in the first part, was the top paid-actor. It was also said that Howard took a 1 million dollar pay cut for the film so that Downey could be hired and when he refused to agree to another pay-cut for Iron Man 2, he was replaced by Don Cheadle.
Howard had claimed that while he needed Robert Downey Jr’s help and support him while they were renegotiating their contract for Iron Man 2, he never heard back from RDJ. Howard had said in a Rolling Stone profile from 2015 that he called Robert many times, left messages with his assistants, told him he needed the help that he had earlier given Downey, but to no avail. He never heard from him again. “And guess who got the millions I was supposed to get? He got the whole franchise, so I’ve actually given him 100 million dollars, which ends up being a 100 million dollar loss for me from me trying to look after somebody, but, you know, to this day I would do the same thing. It’s just my nature.”
Back in 2013, when Terrence Howard appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, he had said, “It turns out that the person that I helped become Iron Man, when it was time to re-up for the second one, took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out.” He also revealed that the makers came to him with the sequel and were ready to pay one-eighth of what they contractually had for him, as the makers thought the film would be a success, with or without Terrence.
“And I called my friend, that I helped get the first job, and he didn’t call me back for three months,” he said. ALSO READ: Iron Man Robert Downey Jr Once Threatened To Quit Marvel Studios Over The Remuneration Of His Fellow Cast Members
Robert Downye Jr, in an interview with MTV from 2008, had said that he had nothing to do with the decision of Terrence being replaced. “It’s one of those situations where I still don’t quite know what happened or why. Here’s what happens, too: things happen and you wind up commenting on them before you’ve actually talked to the people and it’s in poor taste.”
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